Matthew Tuchband, previously deputy chief counsel for Foreign Assets Control at the Treasury Department, joined Arent Fox as counsel, the law firm said in an Aug. 26 news release.

In the Aug. 26 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:

The Eurasian Economic Union Commission completed its customs code harmonization to improve customs clearance time, “service portals,” rules relating to restricted goods, countries of origin and more, according to an Aug. 22 report from the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. The move is expected to “clear up the discrepancies and inconsistencies” related to several areas of customs and trade between the Eurasian Economic Union’s member countries: Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. The move will standardize the average customs clearance time to four hours, define required procedures for establishing exact customs values, list a series of banned goods and more, the report said.

The government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices as of Aug. 26 (note that some may also be given separate headlines):

The Canada Border Services Agency on Aug. 26 updated Memorandum D11-11-1 on national customs rulings. The update includes information on new procedures for processing ruling requests by email between the applicant or their agent and the CBSA. “The CBSA encourages the exchange of information by email with the applicant,” starts the new section on email communication. The updated memo also includes new policies on a five-year disposal and retention period for CBSA to retain records of ruling requests. Finally, the update includes new circumstances when a ruling will not be issued and the request rejected, including when supplementary information was requested but not provided within 30 days or the request does meet the requirements listed in the memorandum.

Taiwan “rejected or destroyed” 23 shipments of U.S. agricultural products during the first half of 2019 due to chemical residues and food additives, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service said in a report released Aug. 23. The USDA said 15 of the 23 rejections contained “pesticide residues,” such as “fluopyram on fresh broccoli and fruit powder.” Food additives were the second largest reason for violations, USDA said, and included issues such as “benzoic acid on collagen powder and vitamin drinks.” USDA said the violations “continue to pose a challenge to U.S. agricultural exports and exporters should be vigilant in the face of strict Taiwan adherence to food safety regulations.”

Taiwan is tightening labeling requirements for imported chicken products to urge “retail outlets” to label slaughter and production dates on all imports, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service report released Aug. 23. Taiwan’s Food And Drug Administration urged companies to comply with the change in a recommendation published Aug. 13, USDA said. Taiwan plans to first impose a “trial program requesting voluntary labeling on all poultry meat and products sold at convenience stores, supermarkets, and hypermarkets” before the measures are officially imposed, the report said. USDA said the country did not release a date for when the trial would begin, but said it would impact about 10 percent of the country’s U.S. chicken imports.

Singapore's and Thailand’s customs mutual recognition agreement will take effect Sept. 1, allowing for a more efficient exporting process and faster customs clearance for authorized economic operators in the two countries, Singapore said in an Aug. 26 notice. Qualifying companies “can now look forward to facilitated clearance for their goods” when the two countries trade, the notice said. The agreement covers companies certified under Singapore Customs’ Secure Trade Partnership-Plus program and Thailand’s Authorized Economic Operator program.

The State Department issued three technical corrections to the Cuba Restricted List, in a notice.

Both the United Kingdom and the United States touted the potential of a free trade agreement after the U.K. leaves the European Union. President Donald Trump and U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke to the press in France after breakfast during the G-7 conference. "We're going to do a very big trade deal -- bigger than we've ever had with the U.K.," Trump said. He said he didn't anticipate any problems in negotiating it and predicted it would happen "pretty quickly."